Australia – Travel Babble

The Animals Of Australia

January 9, 2018 Anika Raffle1 Comment

Wow, wow, look at this.
The Kangaroos, both Mr and Miss.
They are in their mob, with joeys too.
And relax in the shade, for they are kangaroos.
But don’t get too close.
For the small ones can hurt.
And the big ones that look like they have a shirt.
They can make you desert kill
Before you can run and hide in the mill.
Not meaning to give them a bad reputation though,
For they are also as sweet as can be.
Just don’t get too close or again,
You may never pee.
THE KANGAROO.

A little bit smaller, but still related.
And they have still happily mated.
So now they have a little hopper.
What a sight.
And make sure you don’t give them a fright.
For it’s easy to do,
And remember,
They do not live in a zoo.
They are not the most friendly.
And it’s not that they’re mean
They just run away.
And what a day it would be.
If you could see
THE WALLABY.

Echidna is quite the name.
To go with an animal with a bristly mane.
The echidna has spikes.
Like a porcupine.
Except cuter.
For she has her own cute squeaking line.
She loves to eat,
And dig in the ground.
But don’t doubt her,
For you don’t know what treasures she may have found.
She doesn’t grow too big.
Just about the size of a baby pig.
For she is the
THE ECHIDNA.

Now I couldn’t leave this little guy out.
For he is calm,
Don’t have your doubts.
He sits around
Roaming, drinking or eating grass.
For he walks slow, but runs super fast!
He is among the cutest of things.
Like a small bear,
But with a charge that stings.
There are lots of them to be found.
For he is
THE WOMBAT
And he’ll keep you feeling safe and sound.

Every animal would be great in a zoo.
But who needs a zoo,
Not me,
Not you!
For if you can spot these elsewhere
A wallaby, echidna, wombat or kangaroo,
You should feel very lucky.
Almost as much as the happy little duckies.
But try to go there and see them for yourself
Be a little bit fashionable,
find an AUSTRALIAN ANIMAL.

The Great Barrier Reef Poem

December 15, 2017 Anika Raffle2 Comments

If at first you are scared that’s okay.
You are swimming in the ocean, not the bay.
If you just want to look down.
Don’t frown.
You can swim out a little bit at first but get scared.
And swim back to the platform.
But don’t let your hope get teared.
Let someone tell you that moon jellyfish don’t sting.
And that baby turtles are one of the things you can see.
Gather up your courage and thrust your self out.
Away and away from the boat’s snout.
Look at the turtles and jellyfish and clams.
And think to yourself.
In the Great Barrier Reef,
I just swam.

Some ways people use (and don’t use) technology around the world

December 7, 2017December 7, 2017 Hayes Raffle4 Comments

So far we’ve been in the United States, New Zealand, Mongolia, India, Bhutan, two islands of Indonesia (Bali and Flores), four regions of Australia, and countless airports. We have seen different people using technology and have spoken to that least one person in depth about it in each country. And you can learn something by looking at people. Let me tell you some of the things I’ve noticed.

First of all “first world” seems to apply to Internet as much as anything. I had sort of gotten used to the idea that people are glued to their phones all the time whether it is to socialize, to learn, to optimize their travel schedule, or to be entertained. Not so outside of the US, it seems.

Namaste.
An Indian builder greets us with his phone conveniently tucked between his palms, a sight I saw often seen in India where people hold their phones ready-at-hand.

Internet service does not exist everywhere, and it does not always work. And connectivity alone does not make a country internet-native. As the Kiwis say, they live 20 years in the past. So even though Google Maps works flawlessly, not that many people depend on the internet the way we do at home. In the other places I’ve been, the internet does not always work, or even exist in the same form as we have at home, because unreliable or horribly slow connections really change what you can use the internet for, and how you will end up using it.

Some challenges

The internet doesn’t work very well most places. Many of our web services don’t work when this is the case (e.g. many Google services like Photos and Hangouts). Personally, I have had to migrate to WhatsApp, SMS, and Instagram just to have tools that work reliably.
The only place that people seem to have their eyes glued to their phones is the airport. Maybe this is because people have more time or more money or come from bigger cities, or perhaps they are bored or lonely being away from home (or all of the above).
Phones started out as communication devices and seem to still be that for most people in most places. There are some additional utilities, such as in Mongolia where they rely on cell phones for weather forecast which are quite helpful to the farmers. But mostly they are about being connected to people.
When I have asked people what they use their phones for, internet services are often not mentioned. For example, a man in India told me lots of things which were mostly about using Facebook (although he never mentioned Facebook by name). He didn’t mention any Google services, which surprised me (as a former Googler). So I asked specifically about Google and Google Maps and things like that. The man I was speaking to said, “oh yeah of course – Uncle Google! That’s what we call it – uncle Google knows everything and yes we know Google Maps to and use that a lot.” This attitude was pretty typical: people focus on what they are for, not what the tools or networks are called, or who provides them.
Most of the places we have been to are not iPhone-heavy cultures. Attitudes about iPhone range from not caring, to wanting an iPhone and not being able to afford it, to assuming that we own iPhones even though they have handled our phones directly to take our photographs. They seem to largely be status symbols at this stage, since people can’t tell the difference between a Pixel and an iPhone.My guide in Flores had two phones: a Nokia candy bar phone for calls and SMS, and a Samsung S5 for WhatsApp. He also uses the S5 for Google photos (whose client-server model is much too complicated for him to understand), and FB messenger (which brings home new business) and occasional demos of Google maps, when he wants to “take his uncle to Europe,” or see where a client lives. He has no real idea that Google makes Android, and he uses email and Facebook too. But it’s basically his WhatsApp phone, in his thoughts. What’s the most important thing to people? Other people.

People are interested in other people

The rest of the world seems to have stronger sense of community than we have at home, at least in the old-fashioned sense of community where community means that you live with other people and you talk to them all the time. Community means you get in each others’ business, in each others’ ways, and rely on each other deeply. This is true in New Zealand (which is a little bit more affectionate than England), and it was also true in India where people are almost literally living on top of each other everywhere you go. It was true in Bhutan, in Indonesia, and in Australia. Because of this, in some places like Flores, people spend little or no time maintaining relationships with people who are far away.

Tools like Facebook and Instagram take on a different role when they are used more for coordination of the next face to face encounter, rather than relationship maintenance (as we do in the US). In a culture where families live together and people require face-to-face communication to make important decisions, technology is a way to (at best) arrange your next encounter with someone important, or (at worst) to get in touch with people who have made the unfortunate choice to move too far away talk to be part of your face to face community. In short, it’s all about the people.

Save The Chocolate

December 1, 2017December 2, 2017 Anika Raffle5 Comments

What Will Happen If We Destroy The Rainforest?

What Do We Really Love About The Rainforest

Although many say they want to save the rainforest, do you want to help? Do you want to be able to say that you donated some of your money or time to help it? Do you want to save the plants in the rainforest or the furry faces that live on them? Do you want to save the rainforest for these heartfelt decisions, or other ones? Whichever one you decide to go with, you can help the rainforest. But what if we stopped helping — what would we lose? It turns out, a lot.

What Could We Lose?

If we, as a species, destroy what many plants and animals call home, there may never again be those animals roaming this planet. About 48 full-size football fields of forest are taken out in… guess how much time. I bet you are thinking a year. Maybe a month. At least a week. How about a day. But no, planet Earth loses about that much of our rainforest every minute. And it is all one species’ fault: ours. You may say, “But it can’t be all our fault.” Or perhaps, “That is probably a made up number.” But it is all us. We did do all that. And it is happening now.

What if we stopped helping? What would we lose? It turns out, a lot.

Deforestation

People chopping down the trees in a forest is called deforestation.

It’s estimated that 46 to 58 million square miles of land are chopped down every year, an area equal to the size of Greece.

Image result for people destroying the rainforest lungs
Our Rainforest Being Torn Down

Plants and Animals

We are losing 50,000 plants, animals, and insects each year, all from the rainforest.

Rainforests are home to almost 50% of the world’s species.

Our Health Depends On It

If we stopped helping, we would lose a lot of our oxygen. The forests in general take up about 31% of the world, and the Amazon rainforest alone only covers 2% of the world. But think about this — the Amazon generates 20% of our oxygen.

And, there are answers to a lot of our problems in the rainforest. For example, there are many medicines made from products of the rainforest, such as quinine, which is used to treat malaria, penicillins, and novocaine, which numbs your gums when you go to the dentist. In total, approximately 7,000 medical compounds prescribed by Western doctors are derived from plants.

A World Without Chocolate

Without the rainforest, we would lose chocolate. Cacao beans grow and thrive in the rainforest. Due to the weather, they can not naturally grow anywhere else. And without our cacao beans, we would lose one of humans’ most precious sweets. Can you imagine living without chocolate?

A Cacao Pod

Our Beloved Chocolate

Save the Chocolate

If you want to help your health, help plants, keep animals alive, and save chocolate, you can help. There are some great organizations you can donate to like WWF and Greenpeace, which both help keep the rainforest and the animals in them alive. and are ones that I recommend. You can also do smaller things. If you want to help, you could plant a tree in your backyard, or a small one in the front. Trees are our main source of oxygen and you would be helping the world if you did. You could also start recycling and composting more at home. Pollution is killing the trees and composting helps them grow. Or perhaps just spreading the word would be something you would be more open to participating in. Either way, we need the rainforest, and at this point in time, it needs us. So use those five extra minutes you would be using to play video games or texting a friend to help our rainforest and fix the mistakes we made.

Bibliography

Zoe The Doggy

December 1, 2017December 2, 2017 Anika Raffle2 Comments

The moment I step into the house of Hannah, Debra, and Akihiro, I greet them with warm smiles and hugs. But then I notice something very eye-catching. A puppy stands in the corner, barking not so quietly at us. I lean down and pick her up, and she stops barking. Sitting down on the couch, I instantly sink in. Zoe starts to get up but then lays back down again. That is when I know that my stay at Hannah’s house will be better than I expect.

The next morning I wake up, open up my book and get caught up in an amazing story, After an hour, I finally stop. I stretch and get ready for the day, and instantly look for Zoe. I find her in Hannah’s lap and tell Hannah “That is one seriously cute puppy.” Hannah stares at me for ten seconds and then responds, “Zoe is nine.” I look back at her in surprise and then walk to have my breakfast. What makes her look like a puppy is simple. She has 1 1/2 inch long legs and is about 3/4 of a foot long. She has grey hair, yes, but it is accompanied by white and a little bit of golden-bronze. And to top it off, she has puppy eyes (mostly to get visitors to give her food).

I have waffles and sneak Zoe a bite. When I finish Debra walks in and says, “Does anyone want to take Zoe for a walk?” I practically shout yes, get one my sneakers, and walk around the park with Debra, my Dad and my Mom, and of course Zoe. She loves to run, however, she had a hurt paw that day, so she was limping. She has to get her exercise though, so I can not pick her up. She also loves to be in front so she has to keep a steady pace, for her legs are so short. But she makes it back to the house again, panting, and with what looked like a smile on her face.

One thing I eventually find out about Zoe is that she doesn’t like to be picked up. The first morning I do not notice. However, the second morning when I try, she runs away. When I finally get to pick her up and sit down on the couch, she tries to get off my lap. However, she was just fine with sitting next to me. On the third morning, I lured her with food, and she did not hesitate to run into my arms. And on the fourth morning, I couldn’t find her to pick her up. As I thought she was a puppy, she was very light and small and soothing to cuddle with. Picking her up to snuggle with her was one of my highlights for the four days.

I found out many things about Zoe over the four days we were there, including that she looks a lot younger than she is, she does not like to be picked up, and she loves her walks. All of her strengths and perks make me love to be around her, more for each one. After all, “A dog is a girl’s best friend.”

Flea Circus

November 18, 2017November 18, 2017 Hayes Raffle4 Comments

Some things are best forgotten, at least until nostalgia can set in. We were so excited to go off “the Sam program” for a little while in Australia: after so many weeks being served, being guided, and being cared for, and we just wanted to cook our own meals in our own home. So, we booked a lovely suburban home in Manley Beach and looked forward to cooking too many desserts and making too much slime.

Two weeks ago, our host cancelled. We had nowhere to stay. Airbnb apologized with a $200 credit but there were few alternatives in Manly. The best was a new listing, and while I generally don’t take chances on homes with no reviews, it looked quite good and the price was great. We were a bit desperate so I figured we’d take a chance, because everyone has to list a place for the first time some time.

Oh, regret. First, the heater would not turn off. Then the bug bites started coming. And coming…and coming. I’d already been in frequent attempted contact with the property management company, but they were characteristically slow to respond and now were suspicious of our reports that we had seen fleas jumping around on the couch, and our daughter was covered in bites. They asked for photographs, and told me the previous tenants had not complained. I guess I can’t blame them for asking for evidence, but I felt bruised that they doubted my integrity, because I don’t lie or steal. So I sent pictures, and videos. And finally I sent a whole album.

Maybe there were bedbugs too? I found many critters once I started looking, and now I’m paranoid. We have all sorts of bites. Last night I barely slept, over caffeinated and over stressed. Today we took all our clothes to the local overpriced launderette to be dried on high temp to kill everything that might try to hitch a ride when we left.

And we left. I found an overpriced last-minute deal on a hotel room in the CBD, which at least gets us closer to the Opera House where we can have our spirits lifted watching Jews get ostracized by Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice. Hopefully the kids don’t just sleep through it, and hopefully they enjoy it, and hopefully we can just move on.

Although as I write, here I am on the ferry heading back for one last rendezvous with the bug hotel. Rachel forgot all her makeup in a drawer, items lovingly assembled into a happy family of beautifying splendor. I think she’ll enjoy her makeup more than dinner with me, at least in the long run, so I’m running back to the north head on the fast ferry to see if they are still in the drawer where she last found them. Hopefully I won’t miss the show.

Tomorrow we get back on the Sam program and head off to see what North Queesnsland has to offer. I’ll take Sam a bit less for granted, and enjoy that despite being in the tropics, our hotel will most likely be beautiful, relaxing, and flea free.